Buying a house with a friend, a sibling or a parent

Why people are doing it

Because affordability is a two-sided problem and this solves one side of it immediately.

Two buyers bring two incomes to the debt-to-income calculation and two sets of savings to the down payment. In a Florida market where insurance and property tax take a larger share of the monthly payment than in most states, that second income buys more here than the headline price suggests. Run both scenarios in our affordability calculator and the gap is usually larger than people expect.

How you hold the title matters more than the mortgage

Two common forms in Florida, and they behave very differently when something goes wrong.

Tenancy in common also allows unequal shares — 60/40 if the contributions were 60/40 — which joint tenancy does not. Choosing the wrong one is the mistake that surfaces years later, at the worst moment.

The agreement to sign before you offer

Six questions. Answer them in writing, with an attorney, before there is a property to argue about.

1. Who pays what, monthly and for repairs, and what happens if someone cannot.
2. What each person’s share is, and whether it tracks contributions or is fixed.
3. How one party exits. Right of first refusal for the other, a valuation method, and a timeframe.
4. What happens if one wants to sell and the other does not. Without this, the answer is a partition action in court.
5. Who lives there, and whether they pay the other party rent for the use of their share.
6. What happens on death, divorce or a new partner moving in.

The Florida-specific detail

The homestead exemption follows residence, not ownership.

If one co-owner lives there and the other does not, the exemption generally applies only to the resident’s interest. That changes the tax bill from what a simple calculation suggests, and it is worth asking the county property appraiser before you assume either the full exemption or none of it. It also affects the assessment cap, which is the part that compounds.